Writes4Women

Today's episode features rural romance author Renae Black, and is all about getting your debut novel published. Renae is the author of Red Dirt Home, published by HQ Harper Collins. Renae Black's family stretches back at least three generations of farmers on both her mum and dad's side. She spent her formative years growing up on a property north of Wagga New South Wales, that bred cattle and hosted the odd ostrich sale. 

A qualif...

Lauren Chater is the author of the historical novels The Lace Weaver, Gulliver's Wife and The Winter Dress. Her latest book, The Beauties is a seductive story of rivalry, artistic passion and a woman bold enough to use her beauty as a weapon.

It's a dual timeline, multiple point of view narrative set in the seventeenth century written in Lauren's beautiful prose style, and meticulously weaving fact and fiction.

In this episode Pa...

Jenna Lo Bianco is a writer, educator, PhD Candidate, and advocate for Italian language education in Australia. She is the author of the newly released contemporary fiction title, The Italian Marriage, the first of three books all set in Italy.

With nearly 60 publications to her name, Jenna is trusted nationally and internationally to write about all things ‘Italian’. She is a Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institu...

Tate James, USA Today Bestselling Author of Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, and Urban Fantasy chats to host Pamela Cook about life as an indie author and her reverse harem Maddison Kate series.

Unable to find enough of the books she wanted to read, Tate turned her hand to writing reverse harem novels. Since then she has written over 45 novels and hit the best-seller lists time and time again. In this episode she reveals the secrets o...

Brendan Novak is the New York Times bestselling author of over 75 books. She has been writing for over 25 years, and began when she found her childcare provider drugging her children with cough syrup and Tylenol to get them to sleep. Horrified and not able to trust anyone with her babies anymore, she needed something to do while working from home.  

A diehard bookworm, Brenda decided to try her hand at writing fiction.That first b...

Mary-Lou Stephens talks to host Pamela Cook about her second historical fiction novel, The Chocolate Factory.

As the title suggests it's a tale of intrigue and romance, woven into the factual story of the beginnings of the Cadbury chocolate factory in Tasmania. Mary-Lou talks about the inspiration for the novel, the pressures of writing 'the second book', research rabbit holes and bringing her characters to life on the page. Pam a...

Guest host Meredith Jaffé, author of The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah and The Tricky Art of Forgiveness, chats to Jane Tara about her new release Tilda is Visible.

Jane has published over a hundred children's books, several plays ya in romance novels, as well as travel and educational books and journalism. She spent 13 years wandering the world and lived in five countries, but is now happily at home in Sydney.  Jane is also the gen...

Something a little different this week as host Pamela Cook chats to novelist and memoir writer Kathryn Abdul-Baki about her memoir Dancing into the Light, a beautiful story of growing up between two cultures and coming to grips with grief.

Kathryn was born in Washington, DC to a Palestinian father and an American mother, and grew up in Iran, Kuwait, Beirut, and Jerusalem, where she attended Arabic, British and American schools. Af...

Rae Cairns hosts a compelling interview with bestselling crime author Dervla McTiernan, who shares insights on her latest book WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?. The conversation delves into McTiernan's writing process, the evolution of her craft from her first book to her ninth, and the thematic exploration of toxic relationships and the weaponization of media in her novel. McTiernan's personal journey, including her remarkable path to publi...

Dr Amy T. Matthews is an award-winning author, an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Flinders University, and the co-host of the podcasts Word Docs and Love on Campus. Her most recent release, Someone Else's Bucket List, a P.S. I Love You for the digital age, is about an outgoing social media influencer who leaves crippling medical debt behind after her tragically young death from leukemia, and her final wish is for her int...

Kylie Orr is an Australian author of dark and twisty contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, Someone Else's Child was published in 2022 to industry and reader acclaim.  Her new novel, The Eleventh Floor, is a page turning read about a sleep deprived first time mum and a crime she wishes she didn't witness.

In this episode Pam chats to Kylie about her experience of writing 'the second novel', pushing the 'make things worse' mantra t...

Ever wondered what it would be like to have the same name as a famous literary character?

Pam chats to best-selling Australian author Rachael Johns about her new release The Other Bridget, a fabulous contemporary romance which draws inspiration from one of the all time great rom coms, The Diary of Bridget Jones by Helen Fielding.

Rachael shares where the original idea for the story came from, how she developed a large cast of cha...

Welcome to Season 5 of Writes4Women!

In this captivating episode of Writes4Women, we sit down with acclaimed author Hannah Richell to dive into her writing journey, the challenges she's faced, and her change of direction as she takes on the psychological thriller genre in her new release The Search Party.

Hannah opens up about overcoming writer's block, the profound influence of setting in her stories, and the joy of rediscoverin...

Join us for a fascinating year-end discussion as we sit down with some of our favourite guest authors from 2023 who share their writing highlights, challenges and some delightful book recommendations to snuggle up with this holiday season. We celebrate 25,000 downloads of the podcast and look back on the year that was.

We believe that the best gift we can give our readers this Christmas is the love of reading, so here's to a year ...

In this episode of Writes4Women, guest host Laura Boon facilitates a detailed conversation with debut crime author Lynne Johnson about her experience writing The Bait Trap.

Lynne writes crime with feeling, that deals with gritty social issues, like addiction. The Bait Trap draws on her own struggles with alcoholism. Lynne's characters are richly layered and her narrative delves deeply into issues around alcoholism and recovery. Ly...

Nancy Cunningham is a writer from Adelaide, South Australia, who has always loved storytelling in all its forms. Novels, short stories, TV, movies, video games, songs and poetry have all inspired her to write stories in genres from historical to romance to crime and science fiction to short literary fiction.  But 20th  century historical fiction is where her writing heart really lies, especially stories involving stoic heroines of ...

Camille Booker is an award-winning author and creative writing teacher at the university of Wollongong. Her debut novel, What if You Fly?, a World War II historical fiction, was published by Hawkeye Publishing in 2021. It was long listed for the 2019 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, and was runner up in the 2020 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize. In 2022, Camille  completed the Curtis Brown Creative Six Month Novel Writi...

Pam chats to best selling author Joanna Nell about the evolution of the plot and characters in her new release Mrs Winterbottom Takes a Gap Year, A witty and touching tale about mismatched expectations and living life in the moment,

Joanna provides a fascinating insight into her creative process, talks about the disappointment of an initial draft being rejected by her publisher and how she picked herself up and got on with the job...

This week's episode is a solo episode featuring podcast host Pamela Cook answering listener questions on the craft of writing.

• What do you do when the ideas aren't flowing?
• What comes first, plot or character?
• How do I stop adding new words at the revision stage?
• How do you get through your darkest times as a writer?
• What if a book with a similar plot or idea comes out while you're still working on yours?
• What are your ...